My chosen word of the year – “mot de l’année” – for 2026 is GRIT. I’ve done this for four years and I love it, it keeps me focussed when my chimp is playing up!
Not as a slogan. As a commitment – to showing up for Notes from…
I have a very active inner voice.
It narrates my day. It replays conversations I had days ago and points out what I should have said instead. It worries – consistently, creatively, and in impressive detail – about things that have not happened yet and may…
The Book That Made Me Stop Taking My Teenager Personally
April 18, 2026
Before I found Lorraine Candy’s Mum, What’s Wrong with You?, my mornings looked like this.
I am going to paint you a picture.
My youngest can’t find his shoes. My middle one is melting down over a hairbrush – an actual hairbrush, in ways I will…
I have had a complicated relationship with Tony Robbins.
On one hand: the energy is undeniable. The man commands a room like no one I have ever seen. The stories are extraordinary, the breadth of knowledge is real, and some of the ideas – the six human needs, the…
Back in my younger years, I used to be quietly proud of managing on less sleep.
Staying up after the children were in bed to finish something. Six hours. Sometimes five. Fine. Manageable. I am not the kind of person who can afford eight hours anymore – that was for…
There is a version of me who handles things calmly.
She takes a breath before responding. She doesn’t catastrophise at 2am about something that will probably resolve itself by Thursday. She doesn’t say the sharp thing she immediately regrets and then spend…
The Real Reason Most of Us Don't Get What We Say We Want
April 10, 2026
I want specific things. I can describe them clearly. The blog that sustains me financially. The house by the sea. The sense of financial calm rather than financial anxiety. The family life that feels settled rather than reactive.
I do not just want these things in a…
I have had mornings – more than I would like to admit – where everything is in place and I still cannot quite start.
The coffee is made. The desk is clear. The morning routine is done. The project is there, waiting, and I sit down and… nothing. Or worse…
I have been described, at various points in my life, as “easy to be around.” Low maintenance. Someone who doesn’t make a fuss.
For a long time I took this as a compliment.
Thomas d’Ansembourg’s Cessez d’être gentil, soyez vrai!
I have a daily intention practice. It lives in my journal, every morning, in eight categories: career, finances, personal growth, health, family, social life, physical appearance, environment.
I write in the present tense. I close my eyes and feel what I am describing. I…
